Chapter7

//**10 Traits of Highly Effective Teachers**//

**Chapter 7** **Hiring highly effective teachers** Todd Whitaker states, "The single most precious commodity in a school is a vacancy." This chapter supports the belief that educational leaders take this responsibility very seriously. What does your current district do that supports the importance of effective hiring, and what does it NOT do as well as it should?

Dani Carter- First off this chapter was interesting for me to read because I have only been apart of one interview so I was unaware of other methods that could possibly happen in the interviewing process. With that being said, I feel like the district I am currently in supports the importance of effective hiring by having multiple people sitting in on the interview. When I interviewed 3 years ago there was 8 people on the committee because I was split between two schools. There were 3 principals (the elementary one was retiring and the new one was just starting to take over), 2 teachers from both the elementary school and middle school, and the super. I felt like it was a fair representation for the schools that I would be apart of and allow them to make the best choice. Besides having multiple people sitting in on the interview, they also asked awesome questions. I remember really having to think about my answers before I just blurted something out (some of you don't know me very well but I sometimes just blurt the first thought into my head and don't really think it through.) Something that I feel the district does not do well is really look at the position they are hiring for. I understand that good/effective teachers are flexible and able to move if needed, but sometimes the effective teacher could be more beneficial elsewhere. With the non-certified staff I feel like the input (especially for the special education students) could be more appreciated because the teachers that are apart of the interviewing committee are there for the best of their students and know who would be able to assist them the most. I am glad that I got a job immediately after one interview but now I am dreading if I move to another district or apply for principal jobs because I am so inexperienced in that manner!

Laughlin: This chapter is a good one for me personally right now due to our situation in our district. We are having budget cuts and that is very unfortunate, due to this we have some teachers looking for other jobs, which is going to end up possibly having us hire a few teachers to fill more spots than what we were anticipating having to cut. In my current district, which this is only my second year in this district, I have been a part of many interviews due to the curriculum side of things and seeing if people really can "talk" about effective strategies and content (not that I know every content area, but I am one ear to listen to what they say about it). I feel our district days a great job of getting representation on the interview committee to assist with the process. I know from experience there are multiple steps one could have to go through to just get a face to face interview, which I think we need to step up or game a little on the pre-interview process, but during the interview the committee present is well represented. We have recently added a rating scale onto our interview questions that has helped a great deal as well. I think having quality questions is a critical point, which I was surprised during the first interview we were preparing for last year that we didn't have a bank of questions from previous interviews to go from, we had to totally start from scratch. During this time I talked with a lot of people, got samples from other districts, Googled interview questions for specific teaching positions and have gathered a list of them for future interviews we may have. This is one area that I feel we need to improve upon is getting the right types of questions to be able to see what the whole teacher is like. I also feel we struggle with the follow up of interviews to let people know in a timely manner that it was already filled. We have a new superintendent this year who is "upping our game" on the whole interview process which is very valuable for our district.

Emilie: I am not part of the hiring process at AEA 267. I know when I was hired I was interviewed by a committee of 5 administrators. I also know that currently AEA 267 is not just trying to fill positions. We are told that the administration has made a commitment to hire people who truly seem like a good match for the position.

J. Schutte: I have been a part of several interviews. We have a high turnover rate for teachers at our school district for some reason. It could be our unique population of students. My current district does a nice job at trying to hire the best. Our district supports offering the jobs to teachers with their masters and recognizing their years of experience. On thing that our district does that I am not supportive of is hiring a teacher just because they have their coaching endorsement. During our last round of interviews, we only interviewed teachers that had their reading endorsement and the ability to coach. I know that it is difficult finding coaching in a small district, but are we hiring the best candidate if we limit it to only those that have their coaching? I also feel that our elementary building currently has been focused on finding men to fill our teaching positions. Our population of students need positive male role models, but are we overlooking some great female candidates? I have been frustrated with the turnover in our district because it seems as if it has been happening at my level. I have taught with 6 different teachers in 6 years. During the interviews this past summer, I was convinced that I wanted to find someone that had ties to the community and would stay. I invest a lot of my time coaching and mentoring new teachers each year. We hired two men that have no ties with our community. I was upset at first, but as the year continues on, I feel that our principal did a nice job finding two great teachers. My principal told me that he would rather have one or two years with a great teacher influencing our students than several years with an average teacher. I agree with him now. Our sixth graders still talk about their 4th grade teacher from 2 years ago and ask for him to come back to visit as a reward for doing well on their Iowa Assessment tests.

This is a difficult topic for me to discuss, because I'm altogether positive what the district does to make good hires. It is largely a principal decision, and the staff is not notified until the new hire is brought on board. Sadly enough, it seems that our students know more about our future teachers than we do as staff members. This has been the practice for as long as I have been a teacher, and was the process during my hiring at the school. In fact, it was the only school that I interviewed at that did not have multiple different people in the room - either principal, superintendent, teacher, or students. This would definitely be something that I would like to change if at had the ability too. Teachers and other personnel must be a part of the hiring process. If they are not we are setting up a chance meeting on whether our staff will be cohesive. Furthermore, an think that this is a step that can helps shoulder some of the burden. If you take it all on, with no other eyes in the room and the new hire struggles it is completely on you. Not to shake responsibility, but if the hire is the choice of many, including teachers there is greater incentive to help work, and mentor the new hire to see it work out for the school. (Einsweiler)

Daters: I, like others, have not really been part of any interview process. I have interviewed in my district two different times myself though. Both times there was a interview team of 5+ people. I think my principal does a nice job of hiring teachers and the process she uses to do so. Everyone that I know that has been on an interview team is always impressed with the questions she comes up with and the team approach they use to interview. I know one struggle in this area is with teacher associates or special education associates. My principal says regularly that associates are a problem because there is rarely any good applicants. We have talked about what a struggle it is to decide whether or not to hire the one applicant regardless of whether or not they are a "good hire." I know she nor I have the answer to this. It is easy to say, just wait and advertise again but reality is, a child with an IEP moves into the district and the IEP says they need a full 1:1 associate and you have to hire someone per law- then what?

Jordan Henrichs: I think our district does a great job of hiring teachers. We have it easy in a way, with UNI located in the community. Many college students make Cedar Falls their home for four years and the prospect of staying here is enticing so we have LOTS of applicants for most open positions. Plus Cedar Falls has a decent enough reputation to attract a good number of experienced teachers from surrounding communities too.

Most buildings allow teachers to be on interview teams. Usually it's just a couple of the teachers of the grade team doing the hiring, which makes sense since they will be working with the teacher on a regular basis. I like how our Superintendent and Curriculum Director allow the building principals to do the interviewing and hiring. It's not always that way. Our Superintendent and Curriculum Director sit in on very few teacher interviews. Often, our principals like to see the candidates teach lessons and references are always contacted.

What I feel our district could do better is allowing transfers within district. I don't feel like there is any consistency with the process. Sometimes teachers are allowed to transfer to positions without so much as an interview. Other times, teachers seeking positions within the district are put through rigid interviews as if they were a brand new teaching candidate to the district. This is not fair. Sometimes I have heard of principals not allowing transfers to other positions or buildings within the district out of spite (personal differences), or out of fear of hiring a new teacher which I believe is a backwards approach. Like Whitaker says, principals should welcome the opportunity to hire a new teacher. Of course if your are in jeopardy of losing a good teacher, it is difficult. You can try and talk them into staying, but stooping to petty ways of forcing them to stay is not good.

What I will take away from the chapter, is just that what Whitaker said is reinforced. I love Whitaker. He's one of my favorites that I've been introduced to in the program. I also love the approach of Sally Roth on page 133: "The purpose of the interview is to delve deeply and get the person to show his or her true colors, demonstrate consistency, and reveal some spark of enthusiasm and truth that cannot be denied. We are looking for a good person first and skilled teacher, second." That's presents us with a lofty goal, but an important one I will consider when interviewing for new teachers.

Bagnall: Our district is evolving from a few years ago when I was hired. I interviewed once with the superintendent and she made a good choice :). I was told I got the job because I was the only candidate that had a goal for the program and brought sample portfolio items I'd use to achieve the goals, the others just wanted the job because they thought they would be good at it. I liked the scenario from the chapter where they were talking about a candidate bringing a video and one hiring person said that you would only get to see the candidates best work; the other principal said at least I know what their best is!

Now the principal at each school is responsible for the hiring of the teachers at their schools. The middle school principal is my mentor so I asked him about the process. He tries to put together a team for each hire with a member from the content area the new hire would go, a grade level team member, and possibly the assistant principal for additional feedback. What I found interesting was that although the team is present at the interview, the principal makes it clear that their input is valuable, but the final decision is his alone. The team looks at content knowledge, personality, communication skills, and "fit." I did appreciate the honesty when he mentioned that since our school is SINA, very diverse, and doesn't pay as much as some others our selection pool isn't as strong as it could be--maybe that explains why I was hired after one interview.

I have observed the last-week-of-the-summer-hiring the chapter mentions, it has worked "ok" for us, but I think candidates are probably stronger earlier in the year. Our district doesn't usually base the hiring on coaching, but obviously football and basketball are tied more to the coaching than the other hires. I'm in agreement that the less you have to "fix" of new teachers is best and it goes without saying that passion is at the top of the characteristics list.

//Sherri Peterson- This chapter was especially interesting to me this month as we will be hiring a group of teachers for the 3 year old programs that the district will be taking over from the AEA 267 programs currently housed at Castle Hill. Some of the classrooms will be housed at Elk Run where I am the Lead Teacher so I will be part of the interview process. I have been involved in the hiring of many teachers and paras over the years that I have been teaching. I have also been interviewed many times. Most of the interviews were not particularly memorable, save one when I was interviewed for a teaching position at a demonstration school that was part of the university. The interview committee was made up of 15 people- university staff, district administrators, teachers, and a school board member. Walking into that room was very intimidating.// //Over the years I have worked on interview questions for both paras and teachers that were specific to the position that was available. When I have interviewed with principals I have helped to tweak questions that got to the important prek questions. The ideas brought forth in this chapter gave much "food-for-thought" and I typed up all of the ideas from the resources in the back of the book so that I can use them this spring after modifying them for an early childhood special education position. One of the things that I really liked about the resource was how the questions were organized according to the 10 traits. Some of the questions will be more important that others and in order to get to all of the questions an interview would have to last 4 hours!// //One idea that I really liked was regarding a writing sample. I am amazed at how difficult some teachers find writing! I have one teacher in my building who is in her second year. She is an amazing, creative, caring teacher, but she absolutely cannot spell! I read a lot emails and documentation that she posts in GOLD for her assessment of students. I cringe everytime I come to a mangled word or poor grammar in her writing. I have talked to her about it and I think that she believes that it is not important if the content is accurate and meaningful. I disagree. This weekend I was going through the individual professional development plans and was horrified to see that she had mangled an important sentence in her plan. I had missed it before but it screamed at me yesterday. I think this attention to detail is very important and would be good information to have about a new hire. My first supervisor was very particular about the written work we produced. She once said at a team meeting that the reports and letters we wrote to parents, professionals, and colleagues might the first or the only thing they know about us and that writing well was putting our best foot forward. I took that to heart and always check my work. I am "old school" so even find it hard to text without using correct punctuation and complete sentences. When I started teaching most of my reports were hand-written and I had to look up spelling the old-fashioned way- in a dictionary. It is relatively easy to check our work now and there is no excuse for sending out work that is not spelled correctly or has incorrect wording. Every teacher should be able to writ e with ease and accuracy. It should not be a lost art.// //This chapter was most helpful to me as a building leader and I am sure that I will refer to it often.//

Katie Kimber: I have been part of the hiring process for new teachers, para-educators and a coach within the last few years. I would say that one of the effective things that we have done with these interviews is involve a team of people in the interview process. I think it has been important to use a team approach because each person has a different perspective on the role the new employee will fulfill. Having a variety of people on the team can help choose a candidate that will meet everyone’s needs.

For example, when I have participated in teacher interviews it has been for the position of a work experience coordinator, a job I have had. I had the perspective of what it was like to do this job and questions about how to complete specific requirements related to the job. In the case of the coach interview, it was for a softball coach, which I knew nothing about! I was there as an unbiased individual trying to get a picture of how this person would best support our students. In each of these interviews, as a team, we talked about the interviews after and expressed how we felt about the candidates.

I think that our district could improve in the area of collecting other evidence when hiring teachers. I know that at one of the schools this year, a teacher was hired midway through the year. He came highly recommended but it didn’t seem as though any other data was collected to support this. He was coming in to fill a long term sub position so this seems as though it would have been a perfect opportunity to observe him teaching before hiring.

Cassandra Hart: When I got an e-mail stating the time for the Lead Teacher interview, I was nervous. I haven’t interviewed in twelve years! I had to think about what they wanted as a Lead Teacher. I was already doing leadership work and it was a wonderful conversation. I had to do an additional one at my current placement. At my old school we have never had an interview team. All of the principle’s interviewed each teacher, Para and Specialist themselves. Teachers had no input what so ever and that is exactly why we had some of the problems with Teams. They didn’t match well at all. As Lead Teacher I have had the opportunity to hire and let go of Para’s in our building. Since so many teachers are retiring, major shifts will occur. The district has different procedures for hiring a teacher than principal. At the principal level, you are addressing the cabinet which makes a recommendation to the Board. Some teachers are moved to certain schools and the principle has to take that teacher. As of now, everyone has to interview for each position and become a member of the portal. My principle has interview questions prepared and uses the team approach. Teachers will bring in their portfolio, may be asked to analyze information or present some. Each hiring process is different at each building depending on the principal and building needs.

Maier: West Monona does a good job of giving people that first chance in a classroom. We have many teachers in the area that have gone back to school to get their teaching certification. The school tries them out as substitutes first and then, when openings do come up, they typically get interviews. The school is fair in their hiring, however, and will go with the person who is most qualified, where you are from isn’t the only deciding factor. Everyone needs to start somewhere!

The area that we struggle in has to do more with demographics then anything. Western Iowa is very different then eastern Iowa in terms of number of applicants applying for open positions. Eastern Iowa is more populated and draws applicants from the numerous universities and colleges in the area. There is more incentive for people to go to and stay in eastern Iowa because of the larger cities with things to do. Western Iowa does not have many larger cities or the vast number of institutes to draw from and therefore our number of applicants is much smaller. This really becomes a problem in the high needs areas such as special education. We had a level 3 special education position open two years ago and only received three applications. Instead of trying to do more searching, recruiting, or finding other sources to pull from they interviewed and hired from those three. Sometimes I feel as if we settle even though we know there is someone better. Of course, looking for someone better would to keep a position open longer and require more work from the already stressed administrator.

Leisa Breitfelder: I think my school has a pretty good process. The first is an online database the principals can plug in their needs and a list of candidates is pulled up. I remember when my principal would have to go through an entire stack to weed through what he was looking for. This has really streamlined the process making it quicker. We also have multiple people in on the interview. For elementary the entire grade level is present asking questions. The principal meets with the grade level prior to interviews and asks them if there are any additional questions they would like to ask. If so they are added to the interview sheet. After the interviews are complete, if multiple candidates stand out then they are asked back to conduct a lesson to a classroom within the grade level they are interviewing for. This is a great opportunity to see their teaching in action and how they interact with the students. The only area for improvement that I can think of is being able to expand the application process beyond internal right off the bat. Sometimes I feel other qualified candidates might have been better for the position however weren't given a chance because it was opened internally first. Also, if it is open internally first and someone does not receive the job prior to it being open externally, then this can cause negative culture within the district. My suggestion would be a process of opening the position at the same time instead of one week internally like our district does.

C. Jacobs: What does my district do well and not so well in the hiring process? I had to first ask one of the principals some questions about that...Since this is my first year at H-D, I wasn't really sure. I knew that they used Iowa REAP, because that is how they found my application and asked me to an interview that I didn't even apply for... I know right?? I am glad they they sift through applications and then if they don't find what they are looking for, they keep digging...One of the questions I asked the Middle School Principal was this: "Do you ever ask candidates to come to a second interview? Do you ever have to start the search over? What are the determining factors?" Yes, we have had candidates come to a second interview. We do not settle on people that are just "okay" or we think can do the job. This takes more time and means that we may need to seek out qualified candidates to come in (like on IA REAP). However, the extra time is WORTH it. Sometimes our first choice does not accept the postion. If the group does not feel comfortable with the 2nd choice, we start the process over. I have started the process over at least 4 times while at Hampton-Dumont. I want the best teachers teaching the students in my building. I will not accept less than that! It think that is a pretty exciting thing about my district. They have some really GREAT outstanding teachers in the district. They really spend a lot of time working through the hiring process... What could they improve? Well, one of my colleagues just mentioned they call the candidate back to teach a lesson if they are a finalist. I think this is also a pretty important thing. Also, I think behavior and classroom management is pretty important, and this should be addressed somehow before the candidate is hired. I think they go through a list of questions and do things pretty well, otherwise.

Zabel- When looking at what we do well in hiring in our district, it took me a little while to investigate, especially since we are in the process of hiring two new teachers in our district. What I found out is that we are good at bringing in candidates that have little experience or education behind the basic levels and having them perform at a high level in their first year. On the flip side, these teachers usually leave a year later, often because of their relationship with the "lifers" in our building. I say this because we have several teachers who will be here until they retire and often times they teach th classes that the new teachers may be more qualified to teach, but the new teachers figure they will never get the chance and leave. When looking at what struggle with in the hiring process, it is apparant that we often do not give fair treatment to all applicants. For example, you are more likely to get and interview here if you are an alumni, know the principal, or have few credit beyond your bachelor's degree. While this seems like it is unfair, the principal justifies this with the fact that we have a low budget and cannot compete for teachers with masters degrees, and that it is sometimes who you know rather than what you know that gets you hired. These are the two strengths and wekanesses of our hiring system.

I think my district does an acceptable job hiring teachers. We have recently started using the system Applitrack, but post on the "IA REAP" website. It's fairly user friendly and I will actually be helping navigate through candidates with my administrator for some internship hours, as well as help with the interview process. In general, we like to move through the process as quick as possible as not to lose good candidates to surrounding districts. We're a small district so it can be difficult to compete. Depending on the position's scarcity, we interview anywhere between 4 to 7 candidates. We have in the past had to keep searching after one set of interviews, so we definitely don't settle. Our administration likes to get input from staff members, particularly those who will be working closely with the new hire. Our superintendent has recently been attending interviews, along with the secondary principal and sometimes the elementary principal. We have a large template of questions we may ask but staff and administrators are encouraged to add/amend/alter questions. All of these are great, but one thing we had done in the past was have candidates teach a lesson to students. I think the positives far outweigh the negatives in doing this. The negatives are of course the teacher is out of place. They might not have the resources they are used to teaching with to teach the objective. They don't know the students. They don't know which students have IEPs, which ones work well with others and vice versa, and may just have a bad day. The positives however, are that you'll know in general how they will teach, what strategies they'll potentially use, how they speak to students, and whether they can teach an objective. With the exception of this, I think my district does a great job of searching for the best candidate. (Moran)

I agree with Whitaker's statement, a vacancy is a great opportunity to improve a school by hiring effective teachers. I have been involved in many interviews for special education teachers. Unfortunately, depending on the pool of applicants I have observed schools hire teachers who are not quality candidates. In my opinion in this case an administrative team would be better off leaving these positions open until highly qualified promising candidates come along. I also know the reality and at times in certain schools and for certain positions the pool of candidates just do not exist. In this situation I think the administration team and district should recruit candidates and work hard to get the word out about the positive things happening in their school and district and encourage individuals to investigate those hard to fill positions.